Written by Tim Shue and Marie Lakey

At YEF we’re often asked to advise on a communications and engagement strategy for neighbourhood battery projects. And as our clients know first-hand, getting engagement right can make or break a project.

With a new funding round from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $46 million on the table, we thought now would be a good time to share these tips.

But why invest? A good communications and engagement approach can

• Enhance project value
• Minimise delays
• Lower risk to budget blowouts
• Strengthen reputation
• Make future projects easier

Some common traps

What does success look like? Success…

• Is not actually convincing everyone to support your battery project, but rather is running a process that allows everyone to share their feedback, feel heard, and to understand how and why project decisions were made.
• Is not actually engaging with everyone equally, but rather is delivering targeted engagement with those who will be impacted by, or who will influence, your project and prioritising those most impacted.
• Is not actually everyone just understanding the jargon or technical details of your battery project, but rather is asking what’s important to them and focusing on that.

Social licence, what is it, and how to get it?

Your battery may be in or impact the communal use of public space. Maybe it’s located at a park near homes or taking a car space.

Whatever your project, the concept of social licence can help you clearly articulate goals for an effective communications and engagement strategy.

In short, social licence is a level of stakeholder acceptance or approval for your project to go ahead. It is not easy to measure and relies on a well-designed process of engagement and consultation.

Social licence is based on trust, which we can think of using three Cs:

1. Competence: Does the project proponent have the necessary skills and experience to do a good job?
2. Compassion: Does the project proponent care about my needs and is willing to listen?
3. Consistency: Does the project proponent do what they say, and in a reliable manner?

Generally, if you can succeed in each of these areas, you will have a strong chance at reaching the social licence you need for your neighbourhood battery project.

To learn more about delivery steps watch this video on communications and engagement delivery for neighbourhood battery projects.

When should we start public engagement?

This is one of the trickier questions because it will depend on your context. However, a general rule for good practice is to engage as early as possible.

Engaging in a timely manner ensures that those who are likely to be impacted by your project don’t feel excluded or anxious about being left behind. If stakeholders feel that information has been slow or delayed, it can be hard to re-earn that trust, which is the cornerstone of social license.

Here are some questions that will help you decide when to first release information to the public about your project:

• Do we have a set of consistent key messages about our project, so that stakeholders will receive the same information at the same time?
• Do we have answers to some of the most basic and likely questions, such as what the battery will look like, how big it is, and where it will be located?
• Do we have a clear timeline that we can communicate to the public about engagement activities, such as surveys, meetings, or information sessions?

Another way to break down this problem is to think about staging the release of information. For example, in the initial stages of your project you could announce a project has been funded with more details to come. Later in the project you could then announce the specific location and opportunities for community feedback.

In the final stages, you could announce the launch event, artwork, and energisation – you don’t necessarily need to table everything from the start. However, it is important to be upfront with stakeholders on what is possible and what is unlikely or impossible. It’s ok do deliver a “quick no” if something is off the table, your stakeholders will usually thank you for the clarity.

How to deal with community pushback?

‘Community pushback’ frames feedback as a bad thing for projects. Like NIMBYism, this is a limiting way to think about productive engagement. We should be far more interested in why some community members may not support your project. Uncovering that why and ensuring that the community members feel heard should be your immediate goal.

Understandably, our human instinct is often to distance ourselves from conflict or strong ‘negative’ feedback. It’s not uncommon for some people to feel strong emotions about your project, especially if it may impact them directly. Unintuitively, one strategy is to bring these people closer into the tent, rather than keep them at a distance. It will be important to hear them out in a psychologically safe space though.

What’s relevant here is not how aligned their views are to your project, but rather what is important to them, why, and how your project may intersect with what they value. Curiosity here is key.

By way of example, we had one community member who was immediately opposed to a proposed battery location after our first letter drop. The initial response was strong, and it included some fairly emotive ‘pushback’. After hearing more about their concerns, we learned they were worried about impact to their property value.

We explored the potential impact to property values, and although we were left with no certainty over the likely impact, at least we knew we had another unknown and potential risk to local stakeholders to consider. This informed the engagement and ultimately resulted in a better location for the battery with stronger community trust.

In effect, we moved from lighter consultation on the battery location and moved towards more of a co-design approach, problem-solving on a more equal footing with community members. This gave the final site greater legitimacy while also being a better fit with the community’s preferences.

In short, don’t be quick to judge community feedback that is initially unsupportive of your project. Listen deeply and try to understand why, and then investigate to resolve any concerns. If there are steps to address concerns out of your control or not possible, you can explain why. That is also a way to build trust in your compassion, competence, and consistency, the building blocks of trust, underpinning social licence.

Watch this videoto learn about the IAP2 framework for public participation and how to apply it to a neighbourhood battery project.

In summary

• Focus on establishing and nurturing trust through your communications and engagement process; this underpins ‘social licence’ and puts you in a stronger position to hear community concerns and resolve issues.
• Consider staging information release, but make sure not to wait too long before communicating updates to the community. Building trust means starting the relationship off on a good footing; engaging early is generally better.
• Don’t focus on community pushback. Instead, focus efforts to understand community concerns, validate them, and demonstrate how you will address them to execute in compassion, competence, and consistency, the three pillars of trust.

And if you’re not sure where to start, get in touch.

Our team has facilitated successful community consultation processes for many neighbourhood battery projects. We can help you develop your plans, design your engagement strategy, and assist with delivery. If you’re interested to learn more email us at information@yef.org.au or contact Tim or Marie directly.

Timothy Shue, COO

Marie Lakey, Communications & Stakeholder Engagement Officer